46% Expect Lower to Flat Sales Growth in Next 6 Months: Survey

SAN FRANCISCO, CA Slightly more than 46% of business people polled expect no to flat growth in the last half of 2007, according to a survey conducted by online opinion polling and market research service provider Vizu Corporation. The poll was conducted among persons primarily located in North America, who are participants in websites and blogs in such diverse industries as law, high-tech, employment and financial services.

The remaining respondents reflected varying degrees of optimism, with 17% predicting 0-5% growth, over 19% predicting 5-10% growth, 8.5% predicting 10-20% growth, and just over 10% predicting growth over 20%.

The less-than-enthusiastic outlook of the business community toward growth is an explicit example of companies needing strategic help in today’s economy,” said Chuck Orabutt, President and Chief Executive Officer of Strategic Business Partners, a Chicago-based business consulting firm. “It can be difficult enough to deal with normal problems like cash flow, inventory and productivity, but combined with today’s increasingly difficult regulatory and tax environment, global competition, onerous energy and insurance costs and weakening economy, the challenges can become too much for many entrepreneurs to effectively resolve on their own. That is why we feel so strongly about our ability to help the small to mid-size business.”

Strategic Business Partners provides such business advisory and management consulting services as cash flow analysis, productivity studies, process redesign, change management, profit improvement, financial restructuring, organizational development and strategic planning. Through its new Continued Assurance of Performance Partnership (C.A.P.P.) Program, SBP works for one full year following their consulting work to help ensure alignment & attainment and they produce a year-end Return on Engagement (R.O.E.) for each client.

About Vizu
Vizu is an innovative company that combines an easy-to-use polling platform with a diverse network of websites. The technology allows anyone to conduct fast, affordable market research or to provide interactive content through a free polling widget. Vizu users include Glamour, Orbitz, Sephora, Jobster, Popstar! Magazine, Cozi, Second Life, TeeBeeDee, TripWiser and is the polling partner for all Wetpaint Wikis.

Headquartered in San Francisco, California, the company is privately held with funding from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Bill Hambrecht, Esther Dyson and Ron Conway. To learn more about Vizu, please visit www.vizu.com.

About Strategic Business Partners LLC

The professionals at Strategic Business Partners LLC are experts in finding and fixing weaknesses in businesses. They leverage global, Fortune-500-level expertise at a cost affordable to the average small business. The goal of the company is to deliver significant results in realistic, measurable terms such as cost reduction, profit growth, new revenue opportunities – and decreased stress among owners and managers. Strategic Business Partners, doesn’t just tell businesses how to grow, they help them succeed.

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